Hey everybody. Welcome back to another edition of the daily Bible podcast. What's up. What's up. It's a, I think you're muted pastor on. So he said what's up, what's up. What's up. What's. What's up. What's up. What's up seat. Right there. That's what I said. You probably heard me out of your microphone. They probably could hear me out of that. It was muffled. And my brain had to work because I was like, is it because my headphones are off? Could have been you. You know, it probably was you, but then your headphones are off, but then you, I was like, no, that wouldn't make any sense. No, you're muted. Not any more though. So you're going to be gone this week. What gives. Buddy. And leaving me alone to the pot. Because I took days off. You're like, oh, absolutely. This guy. Exactly. So this is all retaliatory has nothing to do with it. You're not even going anywhere. You're just gonna be at home. Uh, that's, that's a little bit of a falsity. Um, just not entirely a lie either. So it's a little bit of a false idea yesterday. It's. No, it's actually a complete falsity. Yeah, no, I, uh, I actually take off on, on Wednesday. So yesterday as you're listening to this and I'm gonna be in California for some board meetings and then I'll be back on a Friday. It sounds exciting. Does it. No. Okay. Yeah. It doesn't at all. No. You know what honestly happens in these board meetings? Just review the whole thing. Tell us the kind of sneaky this is. What's really happening there. No, I am grateful for it. I don't mean to convey the wrong. Impression there. I'm going out to meet with our, our sending church. Um, and so I serve on the board of another church or one of our other church plants. And so the, the church that we have in treasure valley, I get to be one of their board members. So I get to hear some updates from them and. Uh, pray with them and kind of find out what's going on. And then I'll have a board meeting for our church as well. And we have an external board and that is our sending pastor. Uh, from California, Mike for bars who was out here for our transformed conference, as well as a handful of other pastors. Uh, from out there, they serve as a council, as a guidance board, as in also an accountability board and they'll help us with things like setting our budgets and, um, just the. They're going to get ministry updates from us. We're going to talk about the good things that have been going on, how God has been growing the church and our staffing needs different things like that. These, these are all the things which. I probably by and large boring on the, the most part. But, but man, I'm grateful and I'm grateful for the team that we have. I'm grateful for our sending church. Uh, they've made so much of what we do here possible, and it's a joy to be able to go back with a good report, much like in the book of acts, we've been reading how Paul would go back and report about what was going on and his missionary journeys. That's a little bit of, of what we'll be doing when I'm out there. So, That was a good transition. I was thinking you were going to go right into it. Well, that would have made sense. I thought you were setting it up on a tee and I was going to be impressed. Then you stopped and then you let me intervene again. And now I'm going to ask you more questions. What day are you meeting with the church? I mean for archers. That is what, so people can pray. Actually today as you listen to this. As you listen. Yeah. Thursday. Okay. So my meeting is at one 30 Pacific time, three 30 this time. All right. So yeah, you can pray during that time slot. Please do we'd love that. Yep. Yep. Well, uh, let's jump in then to acts chapter 20 to do it. 2122. And 23, that's it? That seems like a lot when you say it that way, doesn't it. It is a lot. Yeah. All right. Well, uh, Paul. Is in the opening of acts chapter 20. Um, Set ongoing to Rome. Uh, but he's journey there is going to be quite a roundabout one. Uh, but I, I found it interesting, those that he mentions here, you've gotten verse four. Uh, SOPA tear the, I think that's how you'd say his name. So painter, so put tear. Uh, the Berean. So remember the Bereans there and then you've got, uh, some people have the Thessalonians air StarKist. Arcus and And then you've got Gaius of Derby, and then you've got some of the Asians, which would have been the Ephesians ticket case in trough hummus. So I just think it's cool that you see remnants of Paul's ministry. You see fruit of Paul's ministry with him here in acts 20 that are there because he had been in all of those different regions, preaching Christ. And there they're there with him. You'll also notice too, in verse five, these guys went ahead and were waiting for us at Tropez, which suggest to you, and you bet you've probably noticed this. Luke has been dropping hints this whole time about when he was with Paul and when he wasn't he'll of course use the first person plural, uh, us, we, we are, I guess. Yeah. That's first person. Uh, he'll tell you when he's with him. And so you get a lot of Luke, even though you really don't notice it as he drops it in there. So pay attention to those pronouns. Yeah. Luke. Luke went through it a little bit. I was thinking about that, you know, as we're getting further, along in the book of acts, You know, we often think of. Of Paul and all the suffering that Paul went through, Luke was there for a fair bit of it himself? No, I don't think he was the brunt of it. Bearing the brunt of it, but he was there at least with him. Um, Well, while Paul is on his way. Uh, there, he comes to Toronto and he's going to stay there for seven days. And as any pastor would do, he begins to preach and he's going to preach long-winded because he has a pulpit. And, uh, and so there's a guy named UDA. The kiss and uterus is there and he's listening and it's late and it's tired and Paul's been going on and on and on and on it. And you to. I made the mistake of setting up camp by a window. And it's an open window on a second story. And he ends up falling out and he hits the ground and it goes down and it says that he was taken up dead. So he died in that plunge. And Paul goes down though and bent over him and takes him up in his arms, says do not be alarmed for life is in him. And then it just moves on. So he just resurrected somebody. And yet it's pretty unremarkable in Luke's account that he's like and there's life in him. And then they went on to about the rest of their evening. Some pastors will use this as an example for why they should preach really long sermons. Can you just talk to those pastors, pastor PJ really long or really short sermons? Really long because they're like, well, if someone dies, I can always just pray to the Lord. I was thinking, Hey, I've never preached somebody to death. And don't you dare try. Let's not challenge yourselves. Yeah. Yeah. Um, Anyways from here, he continues his, his journey by sea. Uh, and he wants to go and he's got a point and here his point is to first get to Jerusalem before he goes to Rome. And we just read about that in the book of Romans that Paul had told them, I'm trying to get to you, but pray for me because first I got to go to Jerusalem. And then I'll end up there. But before he leaves the region here of Asia minor in emphasis, he has a, a really sweet interchange here with the elders of the effusion churches. And so he gathers them together and basically he just reminds them of how he had. How he had conducted himself while he was with them. And what are you done? And how he had, had pointed them towards Christ and, and declared the whole counsel of God to them. And they have a really sweet interchange here that ends up with them weeping because Paul's telling them, and I'm probably never going to see you again. And so their love for one another moves them to the emotion of, of weeping, uh, as they have to part ways here. But this is where, um, we see the importance of the local body of Christ. He just in this interaction, but also in verse 28, his instructions to the elders where he says pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock in which the holy spirit made you overseers to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own. Blood. This is one of the main texts to point to, to say, this is why the local church is so important. You all, because somebody might say, well, it's church of God universal, but the church of God, universal is nothing without the local church. The local church is the visible manifestation. It's the reality of the universal church of God. So the local church, it says here in acts 20. Uh, 2028 was purchased with the blood of Christ. And that's why it's so important for us to love the local church, to teach our kids, to love the local church, to call other people, to love the local church, because. Jesus died for the church. Jesus died for the unified body of believers and that's manifested in our reality in our local church. It comes to Bible church in north Texas. And so just a cool scene in acts chapter 20 of Paul's ministry with the Ephesians there. Yeah. Super interesting to see his interaction with them. Paul, was it just a preacher? He was a pastor. He loved the people that he was serving. And just those he made mention in yesterday's reading about the names that came attached at the end of the book of Romans here, you see that his relational competency. I mean, we talk about this in terms of ETQ today. Emotional quotient, your emotional intelligence quotient. Uh, as the, the more we learn about human interactions, the more we realize that intelligence alone is not sufficient. You have to have a really good relationship skills. And Paul was. You know, he was second to none. This guy was really good at relationships, not because he read the books or because he attended a great workshop at the airport. He was really good at this because he loves Christ and he knew what it means to be, uh, to be Christ, servant, to love his people. Just as Jesus told Peter, look, if you love me, you're going to love my sheep. And the same thing is true for you. And I, I mean, even as pastors, of course, that's our call to do this, but for anyone in Christ, if you love Christ and you say you don't love the body, John himself says, and you really don't love Christ. You don't love God. If you don't love the body. One of the things that you and I should grow into as we get older is love for people. That's the most important thing love for God is going to be reflected in our love for people. And here we have an example in Paul, which is so good. Take note of that. Yep. Yeah. Chapter 21. Then Paul is going to journey to Jerusalem. And this is the bookend of his third missionary journey. And, uh, just it's the detail with Luke, how he talks about, for example, there. Uh, we verse three, when we'd come inside of Cyprus, leaving it on the left, we sailed to Syria and landed at tire. And so he's even giving details about where certain locations were while they were journeying on their, their way. And remember, if you go back to the beginning of the book of acts, that's what his purpose was. He's trying to give an orderly account of all of these things as he's writing there to the office. And as Paul is telling more and more people on his journey to him go into Jerusalem. The people are trying to dissuade him as much as possible. Notice in verse eight, we encounter Philip the evangelist. Uh, remember Phillip from acts chapter eight here we see him again all the way in acts chapter 21. He's there. He's got four unmarried daughters who prophesied, uh, agamous comes down from Judea and coming down, he takes Paul's belt and binds his hands and feet and he gives this message. This is going to happen to the one who owns this at the hands of the Gentiles. Um, there, he's going to be delivered into that. And then Luke is even, you mentioned the pronouns verse 12. When we heard this, we in the people urged him not to go up to Jerusalem. So Paul decides to go. So pastor my question is, is Paul being disobedient by going to Jerusalem? No. And the reason why is because earlier he says, look, I know that when I go to Jerusalem, the, his spirit testifies to me that I'm avoiding. What'd he say imprisonments and. I mean, I'm awaiting what I know is going to happen. So Paul is privy to what they're saying. He's not unaware. I think, and this is interesting too, because he's, there's, you know, there's prophecy. They're going to bind you up like this and there's, there's discouragement from the body for him to go. Which is fascinating because of course they have the spirit to, and yet I think what's happening here is that they're being clouded by their love. For Paul. I just made mention about Paul's love for them and his great affection toward them. Well, clearly it goes both ways. And that affection can sometimes really make it hard for us to let people that we love do what God is calling them to do. We're really happy when God calls people to do things that keep them close to us. I think some of us know what this feels like when you're giving away one of your sons or daughters to be married. And they're like, well, Hey, I'm going to go. I'm moving to Texas by the way. And you're going to say no, don't do that. Or I'm moving to Oklahoma or Florida and someplace far away. It's, it's hard for us to let these human relationships go. But when we put our minds on what God wants us to do, uh, it makes things like this much easier, not easy but easier. Yeah. Yeah. From here. Uh, when he gets to Jerusalem, he goes to visit James and they're still the Jew Gentile tension there. And so there's some questions about whether or not Paul was undermining things. So, uh, James gives him some instructions and says, Hey, take some of these men. And, uh, there were four men under a vowel, take them in, purify yourself, along with them, pay their expenses so that they may shave their heads. So this seems strange, but this is basically. Uh, Paul giving, uh, giving. Uh, head nod for lack of a better term. Uh, yep. To the Jewish believers. They're saying, Hey, I'm not against Judaism. I'm not, I'm not saying that this is, I hate you guys. I'm not trying to divorce myself completely from my, my lineage there. And it's it's. It's it's interesting. It's. I don't know, Petra. What w what are your feelings about this whole interchange here? Because it seems like Paul's having to jump through some hoops. It feels a little, I don't know. It feels a little, not smarmy. That's not the right word. I don't think there's anything immoral going on or wrong going on here. I just don't know that it was totally necessary. Well, this is, uh, this, uh, this is pastor James telling Paul. Uh, one of the apostles here's, here's how you're going to best ingratiate yourself to the surrounding culture. And remember the church is in a period of transition here. We have not yet broken with Judaism, Judaism in a strong, definitive sense. So I think what's happening here is the church is making decisions with the information that they have to say, look, here's the best way we think that we can not cause unnecessary offense there's necessary offense that the gospel will encourage, but the unnecessary offense, let's not do that. And so he encourages Paula Gabe, show them, show them that you're sincere, show them that you're willing to honor God and these and these forms and. And paid paid the way. Clearly Paul had some kind of a honeypot where he could draw into it and say, yeah, I'll do that. And so Paul accommodates, I see this in a very similar sentences when he had Timothy get circumcised. That one to me is louder and stronger than this one here. This one is easy by comparison. And I think those are both doing the same thing. Yeah, I think that's fair. That's a good read on it. Yeah. From here while he's at the temple, they're doing this. The opponents sees their opportunity. And in verses 27 through 36, Uh, they raised quite a stir against Paul and they seize him. And if you'll note in verse 32, So they stopped beating Paul. Uh, and so th th this is violent. This is when Paul's talking about in second Corinthians 11 and all the things that he suffered, beat being beaten and everything else. Okay. Here's another example of that. So he is being beaten for him. Uh, his testimony about Christ by the Jews in, in income, the Romans and, and he's being carried away so that there's not going to have a riot happen. And he, he stops them and he says, Hey, uh, can I address them? And uh, they say, okay. And he turns around and he begins in chapter 22 to address them in the Hebrew language. And I love this because Paul beaten and bloodied and perused and broken. He seized on the opportunity and points to Jesus. He gives his testimony in chapter 22, and it's a testimony you've read multiple times in the book of acts. And he goes back over the same details that you've heard about. Um, and what Anna Niaz did and how, uh, the God of our fathers appointed him to know his wellness. See the righteous wanted to hear a voice from his mouth. For you will be a witness for him, verse 15 to every one of what you've seen and heard. And that's what Paul's doing. He's just saying, I'm just doing what I've been commissioned to do. Everybody's tracking with him until verse 21. He says, go for, I will send you far away to the. Gentiles. And it says in verse 22, up to that word, the word Gentiles, the crowd, that Jewish crowd was listening to him. But as soon as he said he was going to the Gentiles. And that was it. And they are enraged and they say away with him from the earth for, he should not be allowed to live. I would say that's a little bit of a, an angry response to their past. I don't think they responded positive, but that's my, that's my read on that. And what's interesting is that this, this whole interaction is, this is the rest of the book of acts, right? This whole section here of Paul getting arrested. And tried by the Jewish authorities, tried by the Roman authorities is eventually what's going to lead them to a free ticket to Rome. So this is a pivotal point in the book of acts that will help us finish the rest of the book. God's orchestrating all of this. Yeah. And when the crowd gets all excited again. They're the Roman step in again. And he stretched out to be flogged and they say, he says, Hey, I'm a Roman citizen. Just so you know, which it was illegal to, uh, to, to do what they were doing. It was illegal to flog them a Roman citizen, citizen. And Paul was like, I'm a citizen by birth. And so, uh, they, they check themselves on that. And, um, they, they ultimately. In chapter 23, decide that they need to do something about this. So they put them back before the Sanhedrin. Now Sanhedrin was the leaders of the Pharisees and the Sadducees brought together. The high priest would have been there. His name was Anna Niaz at this time. And Anna Niaz. Instructs that Paul should be struck on the mouth. And Paul responds to him and says, God's going to strike you. You whitewash wall. And somebody says, Hey, that's the high priest. And Paul says, oh, I'm sorry. I didn't know. There's no way that Paul didn't know that this is the high priest. I got to imagine. This is some sarcasm that Paul's employing here as he's responding, or his site is bad. Or he was being ironic and he was saying, I based on your behavior, I couldn't tell. That's what I'm saying. A little bit of sarcastic jab. Like, yeah. You're not acting like that. Or maybe he wasn't dressed for the occasion. That was another thing I read here. That's a possibility, you know, It was undercover, so to speak. Yeah, Clark, can't put his glasses on and. You know, that assume the nerdy posture. Oh, there's lots of. Yeah. I've stumbled upon that every year. And I always wonder why, why did what's he saying here? So you think he's being ironic? I think so a little bit snarky. Yeah. Yeah, well, and after this we see some of that, uh, Schnarch. Snarkiness that, that shrewdness at least when he notices it's Pharisees and Sadducees, he's like, oh, I'll look, I'm here because of the resurrection. And then he like kind of slinks into the. The background while they fight each other. Um, yeah. And so he's going to be consigned back to the barracks. There was verse 11, the following night. Uh, the Lord comes. So the Lord appears to him again and stands by him and says something that's significant for the rest of the book as well. You must testify also in Rome. And so we're going to see a lot of opposition to Paul between now and then by the time he gets to Rome, but Paul is going to have confidence that he's going to get there because of this. In fact, right after this, there's a plot made by the Jews and Paul's nephew over hears it and goes and reports about it and spares Paul and Paul is sent away. Uh, from them and he is. Sent on his way from, uh, from this region in Jerusalem all the way up. And this would have been going north so down in the sense that they're leaving Jerusalem, but north in Israel, up to Cesarea Philippi, where he's going to be basically be held there by a guy named Felix, and he's going to have an opportunity. Uh, to bear witness before Felix and before quite a few other officials before he finally gets to Rome. What an amazing. Random happenstance that Paul's nephew just happens to be in the right place at the right time. To hear this conspiracy, which is what scripture calls it, by the way. How's your PJ verse 13, the conspiracy theory. That these guys worked against Paul. It's again, fascinating to see the sovereign hand of God, providentially working things together. Because Paul's going to get to Rome and that's really the point of this he's he can't have Paul die. He's got to have Paul stay alive so he can testify in Rome. And of course, Paul's sister, uh, Paul's sister's son heard about this, and this is how God orchestrates everything. This is one area where the, the. How do we call it? You, you pull back the layer, so to speak, to see what's happening behind the scenes. Yeah. God is doing this all the time. Yeah. Yeah. Every day God does this. Yeah, I think it's cool too, that we get to know that he had a nephew. I mean, that's, you don't hear much about policy. Sister or a sister. As a sister. Okay. How many, how many family members did Paul have? I don't know. Never mentioned in his books. Good. Old semolina. Salinas Selena, Selena. Paulina. I don't know. Anyways. Yeah. But there's 470 people that take Paul, including 200, 200 Spearman, 70 horseman, 200 soldiers. Paul was not going to be harmed every serious. About this Cesarea so. All right. Well, let me pray for us. And then we'll be done with this episode. God, we do thank you. That you are always working behind the scenes and your sovereignty is never in doubt in that we can't always see it. It is always in operation. And so we. Are grateful for the times that we do have 20, 20 hindsight to look back and to be able to see how you were moving and operating and working in ordaining situations in passages like this, remind us that that is happening. And so give us the faith in the midst of the times, we can't always see that to know that you are still doing that. And that, uh, if it be your will one day, we'll understand if not, then maybe perhaps in any eternity, we'll get to know a little bit more of what you were doing here and now. And so we thank you for what you were doing in Paul's life and the testimony that we have as a result. And so we pray all this in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. All right, y'all keep it in your Bibles and tune in again tomorrow for another edition of the daily Bible podcasts. Bye.